


It's the Rain

by itsaquinnquinnsituation



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-08
Updated: 2013-06-08
Packaged: 2017-12-14 08:39:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/834887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsaquinnquinnsituation/pseuds/itsaquinnquinnsituation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just another night and it's raining in Seattle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's the Rain

"Well, Mum, I really don't want to..."

"Do it anyway, Louis. Go make some tea, eat some food, watch a movie, and I guarantee that you will feel better."

"I don't even think I have any tea left to make..."

"So make a run to the store, it's not that far from what you were telling me!"

"Ugh!"

He sat on the narrow creaky bed next to a wide open window. The house where he rented his pre-furnished room was ancient, and he reveled in its history, its stories and its ghosts. Tonight, he kept the lights off and could only make out the shapes and shadows of the objects in his room, bathed in the half-light seeping from the outside. It was all quiet, save for the drumming of the rain, despite almost a dozen other people who rented rooms in this house and countless neighbours that lived nearby. He usually liked going out after long days at work, but tonight he felt exhausted and lethargic. Maybe he was just getting tired of spending time with people who he had no interest in. Maybe it was the rain.

He collected his wallet and exited his room not bothering to lock it, then went down the stairs into the hall, opened the massive front door and stepped outside. Here, the sound of the rain was even more overwhelming than up in his room. He sat on the steps of the porch which was covered by an extension of the roof and looked out into the street. The drops danced on the puddles, blowing huge bubbles that were clearly making fun of him: "Here, here, Louis, betcha forgot your umbrella, betcha forgot your rain boots, betcha you don't even own any, betcha, betcha, betcha..." Louis closed his eyes and shuddered.

His phone rang and he picked up without looking at the caller ID.

"What do you want, Zayn?"

"Nothing. To check up on you. To see how you've been."

"I've been fine."

"No."

"No. I hate this place."

"Is it raining?"

"What's it like at yours?"

"Nice. A bit too warm for my liking but nice."

"Are you at the beach?"

"Not just now."

"Lovely" - Louis placed his hand over his closed eyes, - "I wish I were somewhere nice."

"You've always dreamt about America, Louis."

"I've never dreamt about Seattle."

He snapped his phone closed and opened his eyes. It was grey, everything was grey, the houses, the trees, the fire hydrants, the streetlights... There were never any cars on his street and he sat, arms covered in goosebumps, feet sockless in his thin cloth shoes and he watched. It rained yesterday and it is raining today and it will rain tomorrow. It will rain the day after tomorrow and the week after, and the week after that. It will rain all month long. It will be still and quiet and it will rain. There will be no mornings, no afternoons, no evenings, because every hour and every minute is exactly the same - it's grey with the soundtrack of drumming and splashing. It's always like that here. It's always raining. 

He caught some movement out of the corner of his eye. A tall lanky stranger was walking slowly, reaching into one of his grocery bags, pulling something out, throwing his head back, throwing that something into his mouth, then proceeding to do the whole thing over again. The lad had no umbrella and his dark hair was plastered to his head with rainwater, and his dressy shoes made splashing noises as he walked obliviously through the puddles. Louis could not understand what the hell the bloke was doing, so he kept gazing. Eventually, the stranger must have felt Louis staring at him, because he stopped suddenly right in front of him, turned, and with a languid quirky smile offered:

"Want some?"

"What?" - Louis snapped out of his daze.

"Here..." - the lad walked over closer to where Louis was sitting and opened one of his bags for Louis to see. On top of the milk carton and whatever else was in there, laid an opened plastic bag of red grapes.

"Uh... those aren't washed you know..." - Louis cringed.

"They are" - the lad shook his head, sending a whirlwind of drops flying into Louis' face and making him shiver, - "I rinsed them myself... In the restroom sink... In the store... what?"

"It's unsanitary" - Louis protested, eyeing the grapes.

"Well, I'm still alive" - the stranger shrugged, closing the bag and bending over to sit next to Louis, - "can I?"

"Uh...?" - Louis did not manage to stop him before his soaked jacket sleeve brushed against Louis' bare arm, - "Ouggghhh!" - he instinctively moved away.

"That's just water" - the stranger offered quietly.

"It's cold" - Louis protested.

"No, it isn't" - the stranger shook his head and Louis noticed that his hair really must be quite curly when it's dry, seeing how the ends of his soaked do were attempting to roll in little ringlets despite the weight of the water, - "it's only cold because you're sitting here alone, hating the weather and wishing you were in Hawaii... or somewhere equally..."

"You do this often?" - Louis interrupted with a bit of a snarl.

"What, talk to people?"

"No, the grapes. Or washing them in public restrooms."

"Sometimes" - the stranger smiled slowly, - "I do it when it rains."

"What?" - Louis leaned back and searched the stranger's face for the signs of sarcasm. 

"I like the taste of grapes and rainwater. They go well together."

"Uh" - Louis said and blinked several times, still looking into the dark, enticing eyes of the lad, - "you're... you're high, aren't you?"

"Hah" - the stranger laughed so loudly and genuinely that Louis himself smiled involuntarily, - "I'm coming home from a long day at work and I just picked up some groceries at that Safeway on fifteenth, where I'm sure you shop all the time as well, so no, I am definitely not high. Do you know that it's not raining in the city?"

"What?" - Louis stared at him wide-eyed.

"Downtown. It's not raining in downtown. But it's raining here, on Capitol Hill. Mere what... Ten, fifteen blocks away? I was just there half an hour ago and it was definitely not raining."

"Maybe it's raining by now" - Louis shrugged uncertainly.

"I love this about Seattle" - the stranger leaned back, placing his hands on the step behind him and Louis spotted a badge attached to his dress shirt pocket. Harry something, the name tag read. Louis had no idea what the blue lettering ACMA stood for, - "I love that just one street away, there are cars and lights and noise and music and clamour, and here" - he spread his arms, thumb accidentally brushing Louis' chest clothed with only a cotton t-shirt, - "here, there's nothing but the rain."

"Uhm..." - Louis cleared his throat and shifted his feet, - "I was just about to..."

"Hm" - the stranger snorted and looked Louis in the eye. The rainwater was rolling down his cheeks like tears, but his eyes were smiling and his lips were smiling and Louis searched desperately for words, but suddenly the stranger jumped up off the step, grabbed Louis' tiny hand in his own big and wet one and pulled him up. 

"Wha... what are you doing?" - Louis protested weakly as Harry ripped off a few grapes from the bunch in his bag leaving it behind and stepped out from under cover, dragging Louis with him, - "Aaa... are you crazy?" - he was instantly attacked by thousands of little droplets which found their way through the thin fabric of his clothes onto his body. 

"Wherever you're "just about to" you're not going there without trying this" - with that Harry grabbed his other hand and shoved a grape into it, then popped another one into his own mouth, - "watch, like this..." - and he threw his head up with his mouth open, catching the raindrops, then chewed and brought his face back to Louis' - "So? Betcha can't do it..."

Louis was wet and annoyed and his feet felt slimy in his cloth shoes and he started shivering a little, though the stranger was right, the raindrops really weren't that cold, but this Harry something from ACMA looked so ridiculous with that huge white-toothed smile, standing in a puddle, clothes drenched head to toe that Louis sighed out and offered amicably:

"No, I can't... drinking rainwater is unsanitary... and I've always heard to never take food from strangers." He looked at the grape in his hand, then tossed it lightly. It made a loud splashing noise upon hitting the puddle.

"N.. okay" - the stranger seemed unfazed, rubbing his chin with his hand, - "I have another plan to make you do it... though... not sure this one is up to your standards of hygiene either" - he popped another grape into his mouth, threw his head back, caught some drops, then lunged at Louis. 

Louis wasn't sure what hit him or how to make it stop, only suddenly his already wet t-shirt was exchanging water with a much more soaked suit jacket and his lips were assaulted with soft and plump those of the stranger. He gasped and the stranger's tongue made its way into his mouth, opening it up, and before he realized what the intention was, Harry something from ACMA propelled a grape into it, then pressed his lips squarely to close Louis' and pulled away, grinning. 

"Uhm... haaaa...?" - Louis chewed the grape mechanically, staring wide-eyed at the audacious stranger, who asked then, nonchalantly:

"So was it good?"

"What, the kiss or..." 

"The kiss? Is that what it was? I thought I was just offering you a grape."

Louis gaped, oblivious to the water now threatening to invade his unblinking eyes.

"But if you want.." - the stranger scratched his head, still grinning, - "It can be a kiss, too..." And then he really _was _kissing Louis, one hand grabbing at his back forcefully through his thin t-shirt, the other pulling on his sleek hair. Louis wasn't sure if he was kissing back, or what he was doing, really, because somehow he only felt the stranger's metal badge holder digging into his chest and the stranger's pelvis pressing into his own and he realized that his own hands ended up under Harry's suit jacket. Louis wasn't even sure what the kiss tasted like because when Harry finally pulled away, Louis was shaking roughly, clenching at Harry's shirt and looking at him with plate-sized eyes.__

"That..." - he started weakly, but Harry barked out a laughter and then he was upon him again and this time Louis was sure that he was responding, or at least attempting to, because Harry really was doing most of the work himself and he tasted nice - he tasted like rainwater that he was so fond of drinking, and Louis thought that maybe, Harry wasn't real at all, that he was some kind of an earth-nymph, some mythical creature made out of rain and force and sleek heat and pleasure....

Then Harry was laughing, loud and genuine, head thrown back and Louis was looking at him, blinking, noticing just how desperate his own grip on Harry was and attempting to disconnect, Harry catching his hands and replacing them even tighter behind his back, Louis burying his face in Harry's wet shoulder and exhaling an unsure little laugh. He inhaled a few rugged breaths in before leaning away just a bit and looking into Harry's deep eyes which were warm and excited and full of passion.

"So you.... you do this a lot?"

"What? Offer to share my food?"

"N-no... Uh... kiss... s-strangers...?"

"No..." - Harry blinked and smiled sheepishly, still holding Louis' arms as though afraid that he might disattach and run at any moment, - "just you... or I mean... that's the first time... it happened."

"It happened?" - Louis was starting to feel the nervous giggles surfacing up, - "out of nowhere? So what is it... like an accident? An unexplained phenomenon? A momentary madness of sorts?"

"No..." - Harry purred, slipping his hands under Louis' t-shirt and giving him another light kiss on the lips, - "I think it's the rain."

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own the real people or the fictional characters that I based on real people. I do not intend to make money off my work or to offend anyone. This is for pure entertainment purposes only.
> 
> This is my universe and exactly how I see it. I believe that writing should be enjoyed, not judged.


End file.
